Thousands of South Australians lost their jobs in the last year with the official unemployment rate rising to 7.1 per cent – the worst result in more than a decade.
Official figures released today show SA’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped from 6.7 per cent in February to 7.1 per cent in March – the highest since February 2002.
The sharp rise contrasted with the downward trends in national figures – Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 5.8 per cent in March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show.
The figures for South Australia are damning.
A year ago the ABS data showed 51,000 people were out of work.
Today, the figure is up to 59,400.
The figures show South Australia has slipped further behind the mainland states and is close to Tasmania’s high rate of 7.5 per cent.
- NSW – 5.3%, down from 5.7% in February
- Vic – 6.4%, steady
- Qld – 6.1%, down from 6.2%
- SA – 7.1%, up from 6.7%
- WA – 4.9%, down from 5.9% *
- Tas – 7.5%, up from 7.3%
On trend estimates and seasonally adjusted data, its a “worst in 12 years” number.
Nationally the ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 18,100 to 11,553,200 in March.
The increase in employment was due to increased female and male part-time employment, up 40,200 people to 3,524,000, offset by decreased full-time employment, down 22,100 to 8,029,100.
